A Montreal woman who was mauled by a lion at a South African wildlife refuge where she was volunteering believes she was put at risk when she was asked to work alone within reach of a lion’s pen.

“They should not have put me in a feeding cage where a lion can stick out his arm completely and grab you,” Lauren Fagen, 18, told CBC’s Daybreak from a hospital bed in South Africa, where she is recovering from Monday’s attack.

“It’s irrelevant what I was doing — he just shouldn’t be able to grab me like that.”

‘If he wanted to kill me, I would for sure be dead. Or at least have lost both of my legs. I find it incredible that he didn’t kill me and I love Duma to death for not killing me.’—Linda Fagen, injured wildlife refuge volunteer

Fagen had been at the refuge for two weeks volunteering as part of a program for students.

Students pay around $69 a day to take part in the program, money which Fagen said goes toward their room and board. They’re trained on safety measures when they arrive and are supervised by staff members, according to the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre.

On Monday, Fagen said she was asked to clean the feeding pen attached to the enclosure housing a five-year-old male lion named Duma.

Typically, the volunteers work in pairs, but Fagen said she was told to perform the task alone. In other enclosures, a steel door separates the feeding area from the area where the lions are held.

This one was different, Fagen said, and had bars like a jail cell, not a solid door.

“I found that kind of alarming, but kind of ignored it and I proceeded to clean his feeding cage by myself and Duma proceeded to rub himself against the gate facing the feeding cage as I cleaned,” she said.

Noting the animal’s sharp claws, she said she moved further away from the lion even though she believed he was acting affectionately.

Fagen said the lion suddenly stuck its paw through the gate and caught one of her legs. It pulled her through the bars, trapping her knee, as it bit and scratched her.

“I screamed and it felt like it was a very long time, however I don’t know how long I was in the gate,” she said. “It felt like a minute to two minutes, but it was definitely shorter than that because for me it was in slow motion.”

Fagen was rushed to hospital where she is being treated for an injury to her knee as well as cuts and bites.

She doesn’t believe the lion was trying to kill her, but doesn’t know what triggered the attack.

“If he wanted to kill me, I would for sure be dead. Or at least have lost both of my legs. I find it incredible that he didn’t kill me and I love Duma to death for not killing me. He was so gentle for a while.”

She insists that she was following staff instructions at the time of the attack, but Brian Jones, the founder of the centre, said it was Fagen who was being negligent.

Rules not followed

He said she did not listen to repeated warnings not to touch the animals and ignored signs posted around the reserve.

“This little girl, she confessed the first day, ‘I’ve come to hug a lion or a cheetah or a leopard. I want to hug them,’” Jones told CBC News.

Jones said other witnesses at the park reported that Fagen was too close to the enclosure and was warned by other students to move back when the lion grabbed her.

“It’s almost impossible for anything to happen unless you break the rules,” he said.

“She’s probably been watching too many TV programs where you see tame lions and people are hugging them. That is imprinted in their minds. She’s come from Canada not realizing she’s in wild Africa and trying to hug these animals.”

Animal interaction encouraged

Fagen admits being close to animals had been a dream of hers, but not one she would have compromised her own safety for. She says she was alone at the time of the attack and no one else saw what happened.

“As for hugging animals, I definitely wanted to, but I always respected the rules,” she said.

“I wasn’t going to throw myself in the cheetah cage. However, there were some animals there that, when a staff member was present, you could pet them and be affectionate with them within reason. You couldn’t go near their faces or anything like that, but I respected the rules.”

The website of the Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre says the responsibility of student volunteers is caring for animals, including feeding, cleaning and “providing stimulation for our more intelligent residents.”

Jones said in 23 years there has never been an incident like this involving volunteers.

Fagen hasn’t decided if she’ll pursue further action against the refuge, but said she wanted to tell her side of the story before she considered her next step.

Needless to say this is a subjective ranking, but here is how I rank the six players the Pirates can least afford to lose and why as they push for the playoffs in the second half.

1.) A.J. Burnett: If Wandy Rodriguez weren’t out (and in my non-medical opinion it’s not unreasonable to think he may miss the rest of the season) I may not have A.J. first. But with the current situation, he heads the list. The Pirates have lost their #2 and #3 (James McDonald) starters and while their depth has paid off in a big way, losing the ace would be a huge blow.

2.) Pedro Alvarez: We’ve seen over the last month how his bat in the middle of the order is a game-changer. The Pirates don’t have anyone close to having that kind of power in their line-up and no obvious replacement at third.

3.) Russell Martin: Neal Huntington’s best free agent signing, Martin’s defense has been a massive upgrade. His offense has also been a huge plus. If he were to go down, the drop-off to Michael McKenry and Tony Sanchez would be significant.

4.) Francisco Liriano: This is probably going to cause some argument and you could probably put Jeff Locke here just as easily. I chose the hard-throwing Liriano for much the same reason I have AJ up top. If Wandy were healthy he probably wouldn’t be on the list, but here he is.

5.) Andrew McCutchen: Another spot likely to create tons of disagreement. Cutch’s loss would be devastating, but Starling Marte’s emergence would ameliorate it to some degree, their numbers very similar in the first half. This doesn’t in anyway suggest Andrew McCutchen isn’t the best player on the team–he most-certainly is.

6.) Starling Marte: See Cutch above. A great first-half in his first full season, Marte is a stud.

The most-obvious name left out is probably Jason Grilli. He’s been as good as anyone in baseball. But the Pirates bullpen as a whole is so deep and has been so good I think they could survive the loss of any one reliever reasonably well.

Blair is super spontaneous; she enjoys traveling to take in all of the amazing experiences the world has to offer. She loves breakfast food so much she could eat it all day! Blair is an extremely outgoing, fun, caring individual and she is happiest when she is helping others.

A field of 51 beauty queens from every U.S. state and the District of Columbia are set to compete for the 62nd Miss USA title Sunday.

The contestants will strut across the stage at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The woman crowned the 2013 Miss USA winner will replace reigning queen Nana Meriwether and go on to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.

The night’s winner also becomes a spokeswoman for breast and ovarian cancer awareness and other causes, while traveling to promote the organization.

The beauty queens will battle it out in three competitions: swimsuit, evening gown and interview question.

Contestants will be whittled to 15 following the show’s opening number, in which the beauty queens introduce themselves one-by-one.

Most of the competitors will be quickly sent home. The top 16 were picked by preliminary judges through competitions and interviews during the week before the telecast.

Celebrity judges including fashion designer Betsey Johnson, “Biggest Loser” star Bob Harper and “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me” personality Mo Rocca will then pick the top eight after the swimsuit competition. The judge panel will narrow it down to a top 4 after the evening gown portion.